††††††††††† I have the
honor to make the following report upon the condition of freedmen for the month
ending Aug 31st 1867.

††††††††††† The
freedmen have been getting along very well this month but few complaints have
come to me from them or employers.--- The Crops are
quite poor.† The rain has done much
injury to the corn and the cotton crop this year will probably be a
failure.† They are never-the-less very
cheerful and look upon this as one of their bad years for making much: a great
many of them think the coming year of settling upon Homesteads, and I feel very
sure many wont now do so well it no that the best lands belong to the State.† The Government lands are worthless for any
purposes whatever.† The most of them
being barren sand hills with little or no vegitation upon them: those who have
settled upon places of their own in HernandoCounty are doing quite
well and the others who have seen them do so well wish to imitate their example
and have homes of their own.† the people do not like to see them settling for the reason
they fell confident they cannot obtain their employment upon their own
plantation.† they
therefore try to dissuade them from settling by themselves by telling them
their lands will be taken from them by the United States Govít just as soon as
they get them nicely cleared up and many other such false stories are
circulated among them which makes them fell timid about settling upon places of
their own.

††††††††††† The
disposition of the people towards the freedmen is becoming much less bitter in
some localities while in others it is on the increase but the freedmen
understand pretty well their situation and knowing themselves to be freemen now
act as such and when abused in one place they try another till they are treated
properly but I fell confident the planters know it is for their interest to
treat them kindly and the majority are doing so, these people here now are also
trying to bribe the freedmen to vote for candidates they will put up at the
coming election but the freedmen have been taught to vote for the proper men
and there is but little doubts but what they will do is men who will give them
their rights as freemen.

††††††††††† The Schools
have been closed for the last month but will be opened again these coming month
(Sepít) they are much interested in their Schools and seem willing to give both
money and labor for the promotion of Education among them besides their schools
they have a very good Sabbath School and they attend devine worship better than
the white people.† they
have also Temperance Societies among them and they are exerting a good
influence upon those who are inclined to drink.†
I have noticed but few cases of drunkenness among them of late.† they are more
temperate than the whites surrounding them.†
upon the whole the freedmen of this section of
County can be called in a good and flourishing condition

††††††††††† As the
County has been flooded with water and the roads almost impassable I have been unable
to travel about the Country very much this month.† consequently my
report will be a short one.--- No mails have been received at this place since
July 3rd with but one exception.†
so we can neither send of or receive any mails
till the Steamer Allison comes in or the mail route reestablished.---

I am Sir

Very Respectfully

Your
Obs Servít

Wm. G. Vance

Brt
Capít O.R.C. Sub Assít Com Bu.R.F. & A.L

** This report shows that there is still bitterness
between the freedmen and the whites in some areas of HernandoCounty.† The report does state that the freedmen who
had acquired property were doing quite well and other freedmen were using them
as examples.† Also the pressure the
freedmen were under during the upcoming elections as the whites tried to bribe
their votes, the 1867-68 election was the first in which the African American
people could take part in and the freedmen were very excited about voting.